Kanji's Sixth Sense
by WipingAllOut
Summary: A sinking feeling overtook him that night. A critical moment, a decision to be made, and no time to act. Kanji was the only one who had the chance to prevent their dungeon crawl from failure.


Something was wrong tonight, dreadfully wrong, and Kanji knew it.

Naoto needed rescuing for one. That was wrong enough in itself for various reasons. He was already adjusted to their dangerous dungeon exploration, but Naoto's dungeon was taking the cake in terms of difficulty. When he had first joined the team, there were many aspects to be explained to him, one being the trends of harder shadows to fight when they moved on to new dungeons. He had already experienced it a few times himself, and thought he knew what to expect. However, their desperate grind to rescue their acquaintance was ridiculously rough. When in such a serious situation their group usually made small talk and kept things lighthearted to keep their morale high, but they didn't even have time for quick compliments.

It was taking its toll on everyone, even Kanji, the so called tough guy himself. Only a few floors up, and he already felt defeated. As everyone was running in search of the stairs for the next floor, he was struggling just to walk. His legs felt like jelly, and for a second he was worried that they were going to leave him behind. A voice interrupted his thoughts.

"You okay Kanji? You're not looking so good." Rise's voice snapped everyone's attention towards him. Their leader, Souji, responded before Kanji could say a word. In a flash, his body stopped aching and he could finally stand upright. He rolled his neck around to get out the kinks.

"Hey, thanks man. What's up with these damn shadows tonight? It's like they just won't leave us alone."

Teddie nodded in agreement, while Chie pumped her fists. "Yeah! Really! Tonight has been horrible." She bounced around on the spot, and let out an angry sigh before continuing. "Maybe we'll even have to turn back early. I mean, it's great that we've been rescuing people so quickly, but we have to think about ourselves too."

Souji chuckled. "You might be right. These strong shadows targeting us tonight is my fault anyway. It might be best to-"

Chie interrupted him with a hearty laugh. "You have to be joking! How could you possibly think that you made these shadows tonight act crazy?" She suddenly stopped moving around and laughing, and trailed off in thought instead. "Maybe.. Maybe it isn't just the weather that determines what these shadows do. Isn't it supposed to be a full moon tonight? I heard that on the night of a full moon, mental hospitals are especially busy. Isn't that creepy?"

Souji scoffed and tried not to look amused. "I don't think shadows and mental patients have the same mindset."

Kanji smiled as he listened to the two carry on the discussion. Teddie would occasionally try to interrupt with something, but go unheard over Chie's naturally loud voice. He understood why their cute, err, _silly_ outfitted battle partner would do that. Souji was not only a great leader, but a great friend. He never judged, always strived to listen, and proved to be entertaining if the other party wasn't talking his ear off. But Kanji was content on just listening when he was surrounded with those who wanted his attention. Being able to easedrop on these conversations was a much needed relief after their unbearable battles. That feeling of relief did not last for long. In their merriment, they had completely forgotten that they weren't in a low key area such as Junes, but in an unforgiving battle zone. The TV world had no plans on letting them off easy today.

"Guys! You're being ambushed! There are four shadows, and they're all really strong. Please hang in there!" Rise's voice was panicked over the communications, and Kanji sensed that she was paying as much attention as they were. He thought he heard her giggling at the conversation here and there...

But now was no time to ponder that. Like they were waiting for this to come, they pivoted in sync to face their enemies. Kanji instantly realized why Rise was so nervous. Colossal enemies were overshadowing them. Before they could even soak in their appearance, one was already charging at Souji.

That's when everything stopped. Kanji's heart sank when he realized that he could clearly make out everything around him, like time paused just for him. That never happens when you want the day to be longer so you can take more time to enjoy it. No, that only happened in critical situations, and he quickly figured out what this one was. Souji's face was the perfect description of intensity and determination as he eyed up the figure that was intent on destroying him. Kanji was never good at calculations, but something in his squirming stomach just knew, just told him that the boy who saved him, saved everyone from themselves, was going down. The giant's fists were aimed to squash the leader like a bug. Those hands looked as hardy and heavy as steel. There was no way that Souji would be awake, or alive after having his head smashed like a watermelon. Kanji acted without thinking any further. "SEMPAI!"

Time resumed. Oh, how he wished it hadn't. Why couldn't time stay still long enough for him to be able to just tell his leader of the danger so he could step out of the way? No, now things were even more desperate than before and Kanji had only one choice. Kanji would sacrifice himself in Souji's place. With no hesitation, he used all his strength to push Souji's skinny frame at a safe distance, standing where his leader once did. The large hands were about to come down on his own head. If this killed him... it would be better him than his friend, than everyone's friend. They needed him, no one needed Kanji. Kanji smiled bitterly to himself as contact was made to his head.

He had expected a loud crack, or a splitting sound, or some other horrifying noise. Instead, he was only met with a thump as the hands forced his head down. Kanji stumbled under the weight, and although he previously accepted his death, somehow had the stubbornness not to fall. Although obscene curses were being shouted in his head, he was alright. Well, he was sure that even if something as small as a bug landed on his brow he would pass out from the pain, but as is he was okay enough. People must've been more right than he thought when they said he had a thick skull.

Now pride filled him. He found it embarrassing to allow himself to feel so good about himself, but he did. He imagined Souji telling him what a great job he did not only preventing whatever harm would've fallen to him, but also for having strength to not pass out under a direct blow like that. He allowed his body to turn just enough to look in the direction that he had pushed him in. Maybe he wasn't planning on saying anything, but was giving him a thumbs up instead. His sempai could be humorously quiet at times. When his head turned in that direction, his eyes met no one. It took him a second before his brain registered to look down, and there he lay.

Souji was out cold. Not by a shadow, but by Kanji himself.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Okay! This is the result of writing a one shot in one sitting. Being saved by Kanji happened to me on my game, and I figured it would be funny if Kanji's strength messed things up instead of helped. After all, Souji looks kind of scrawny, doesn't he? I originally wrote this with humorous intentions, but I think it got morphed darker. I hope you enjoyed my quick, one sitting one shot self challenge.


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